The talk of Elixir language and Phoenix framework at Rubyconf Taiwan 2016

1. Phoenix demysitify, with fun

2. Who am I
@taiansu
|>
|> Ruby
|> React.js, Redux, Rx.js
|> RailsGirls.tw & Elixir.tw
http://taian.su
facebook.com/sutaian

3. Elixir Taiwan
» Facebook: Elixir Taiwan
» Slack: elixirtw.slack.com
» KKTIX: elixirtw.kktix.cc

4. Phoenix?

5. Web MVC Elixir

6. , web ...
Elixir

9. Elixir / Phoenix

10. Dave Thomas droped by Taiwan
at 2014

11. Elixir =~
Ruby syntax + Erlang speciality
and some more

12. Erlang
from 1986
open-sourced in 1998

13. Build for Telecom switch system
at beginning
» Functional
» Soft real time
» Concurrent
» 99.999% up-time, including upgrade and hot-fix
» Hot update

14. On the fly update, literally*.
Erlang AR drone in-flight upgrade

15. Actor model

16. Compare with system process
» C# process:
300µs per process
50µs per message
» Erlang VM process:
1µs up to 2,500 processes
3µs up to 30,000 processes
0.8µs per message

17. We do not have ONE web server handling 2 millions sessions.
We have 2 million web servers handling one session each.
» Joe Armstrong

18. process in Erlang/Elixir
=~
object instance in OO application

19. with :observer.start

20. github.com/taiansu/game_of_life_elixir

21. Weakness
» Hard real time
» Processing big chunk of data (Video, Audio)
» Uncommon syntax
» String

22. Syntax
-module(mym).
-export([max/2]).
max(X, Y) ->
if
X > Y -> X;
X < Y -> Y;
true -> nil
end.

23. Erlang string: a list of integer
[1, 2, 3] % [1, 2, 3]
[119, 97, 116, 63, 33] % "wat?!"
<<119, 97, 116, 63, 33>> % Bit-syntax from R16

24. wat.

25. Elixir
by José Valim at 2013
Rails core team member

26. Leverage the Erlang VM

27. Pattern matching
What's the "=" means, seriously?

28. Pattern matching basic
# Ruby
x, x, y = [1, 2, 3] # => x = 2, y = 3
# Elixir
[x, x, y] = [1, 2, 3] # => (MatchError) no match of right hand side value
[x, x, y] = [1, 1, 3] # => x = 1, y = 3
[head | tail] = [1, 2, 3, 4] # => head = 1, tail = [2, 3, 4]
{:ok, contents} = File.read("my_app.config")

29. Pattern matching: recursive
defmodule Factorial do
def calc(0), do: 1
def calc(val), do: val * calc(val - 1)
end
Factorial.calc(100)

30. Pattern matching with function, contd.
parse_response = fn
{:err, msg} ->
show_error(msg)
{:ok, article = %{title: title, content: content}} ->
# article = %{title: "abc", content: "123"}
# title = "abc"
# content = "123"
render(title, content)
_ ->
IO.puts "Huston, we have a problem."
end
parse_response.(response)

31. OTP compliant
GenServer, Supervisor, GenEvent, Application

32. Elixir only

33. Case: useless variable
request = generate_request
response = get_response(request)
body = parse_body(response, :html)
html = render(body)
# otherwise
html = render(parse_body(get_response(generate_request), :html))

34. Pipe operator: |>
html = generate_request
|> get_response
|> parse_body(:html)
|> render

35. Meta-programming
macro, quote and unquote, to AST
live demo ( if enough time )
quote do: 1 + 2 * 3

36. github.com/taiansu/pipe_to
2
|> Enum.drop(1..10, _)
|> Enum.at(1)

37. Code with doctest
defmodule Num do
@doc """
Demonstrate doctest feature
## Example
iex> Num.is_even?(1)
true
"""
def is_even?(num) do
rem(num, 2) == 0
end
end

38. doc

39. test

40. Trinity

41. Phoenix
by Chris McCord

42. Disclaim
I ❤ Ruby, still.

44. Phoenix is Rails with less magic

47. Demysitify: Both are MVC framework with
» Routes
» Controller
» Model
» View
» assets

48. Core idea of phoenix:
Your entire web application is a function

49. url is your params, and return value is that html
path = "/order/search?start_date=2017-12-02&end_date=2017-12-03"
html = path
|> router
|> controller
|> model
|> controller
|> view

50. The conn variable pipe through the whole system

51. Routes & Controller
Basically the same

52. Model and ORM
SQL wrapper named Ecto

53. Ecto
defmodule MyApp.Order
schema "orders" do
belongs_to :user, MyApp.User
has_many :order_items, MyApp.OrderItem
field :code, :string
field :payment_method, :string
end
# query functions here
end

54. Ecto query functions
def query_cart_of_user(query __MODULE__, user_id) do
from o in query,
where: o.user_id == ^user_id
end
def order_by_created_at(query __MODULE__) do
from o in query,
order_by: o.created_at
end
## in Controller
orders = %Order{}
|> query_cart_of_user(20)
|> order_by_created_at
|> Repo.all

55. View and template

56. File: template/order/show.html.eex
<h2>
Hi! this is the show page!<%= order_name(@conn, @order) %>
</h2>

57. File: /view/order_view.ex
defmodule MyApp.OrderView do
use MyApp.Web, :view
def render("show.html", params []) do
~E{
<h2>Hi! this is the show page!<%= order_name(@conn, @order) %></h2>
}
end
def order_name(conn, order) do
user = conn.assigns[:current_user]
"#{user.name}: #{order.name} x #{order.quantity}"
end
end

58. Channel
just like ActionCable

60. Conclusion

61. What I've learned
» Different paradiam expand your horizon
» Which is a knowledge you can bring with you anywhere
» Composability over REUSE
» Think in process way
» And...

62. Code with Fun
Just like Ruby tought us, thanks Matz.

63. Code with Functional

64. Thanks for your time!
Any Questions?
more plans on going, join Elixir.tw!